North-eastern Victoria experienced most of the heavy rainfall from the weekend’s weather event, but farmers in other parts of the state also reported useful totals.
Senior Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) forecaster Dean Stewart said falls of up to 102millimetres were recorded at Dandongadale, south west of Bright, with other high totals of 76mm at Strathbogie and 75mm at Whitfield.
“We had a front go through, on Saturday, and behind that front an unstable north-westerly airflow, pushing showers up through that area, during Sunday,” Mr Stewart said.
The BoM said up to 100mm had been recorded in the Seven and Castle Creek catchments.
Further rainfall totals of 10-15mm were expected for the remainder of Monday, with the river at Euroa expected to peak below three metres.
Mr Stewart said more showers were expected through the north-east today.
In the south-west, Portland received 40mm, with falls stretching up into the Wimmera, with 37mm at Hamilton.
Even the Mallee received useful falls, with Edenhope gaining 32mm and Kaniva 26mm.
But Mr Stewart said the rain would tail off, in the next few days.
“We’re going to have a couple of days where there won’t be too much, just some isolated showers along the coast and ranges.”
Later in the week, another front was expected to pass through Victoria, but it would only bring isolated showers in the south.
Barraport cropper Joe Kane said the property had received 28mm of rain over the four days.
“It had dried out a little bit, but it made it wet again – we have a full profile of moisture,” Mr Kane said.
“It wasn’t a bad drop and the timing was pretty good – we flicked out a bit of urea, too.”
He said he was about to head off on an overseas holiday – “hopefully, when I get back, things will be looking pretty good.”
At Mt Emu, wool grower and cropper Russell Pitcher said the area had received about 12mm of rain, in the last two days.
“The timing has been good, as far as our cropping program goes,” Mr Pitcher said.
“We’ve got all our urea out, but if it didn’t start to get a bit wet now, it was going to be a long spring.”
The frontal systems that had passed through had been bringing around three to five millimetres, which was ideal for the region.
“When you have shorter daylight hours, you want less rain.”
Macarthur dairy farmer Craig Dettling said his property had received 35mm since Friday, after “relatively dry winter.”
“It’s setting things up for a boomer spring,” Mr Dettling said.
“We have had no pugging this winter, at all, so no pasture damage means more ground in rotation.
“It’s been dry, but a dry winter is good, there’s been less damage and enough moisture for good growth, all winter.”
